One woman's story as she blogs - and fights back - the zombie apocalypse

Allison Hewitt and her five colleagues at the Brooks and Peabody Bookstore are trapped together when the zombie outbreak hits. Allison reaches out for help through her blog, writing on her laptop and utilizing the military's emergency wireless network (SNET). It may also be her only chance to reach her mother. But as the reality of their situation sinks in, Allison’s blog becomes a harrowing account of her edge-of-the-seat adventures (with some witty sarcasm thrown in) as she and her companions fight their way through ravenous zombies and sometimes even more dangerous humans.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Allison Hewitt Is Trapped when I picked it up from bookcloseouts.ca. The blurb sounded great and the price was right so I gave it a shot. As it turns out, this book is excellent and I’m so happy I bought it!

Allison Hewitt Is Trapped is written as a series of blog entries, complete with comments. Sometimes books that are styled this way end up being weird but it’s a style that really works for this story, mostly because Madeleine Roux is a fantastic writer and Allison and the other characters really come off the page.

I love Allison. She’s probably one of my favourite new characters of 2011. She’s a regular person who finds herself in the middle of an apocalypse and it’s her Every Woman qualities that make it easy to identify with her. Plus, I worked in a bookstore for a brief time and her descriptions of some of her colleagues and customers killed me.

Allison is in an impossible situation and she tries her very best to survive. In the process, she bonds with some of her coworkers and discovered a hereto unknown prowess with an axe. She also takes to blogging, which gives her a bit of perspective and puts her in touch with other survivors via her trusty comments section. The comments really added a little extra something to the book since they give us a few side stories.

On the journey from the bookstore to possible safety, Allison and company have quite an adventure. There are some lows but also a surprising number of positive experiences, as Allison meets a slew of interesting characters and develops relationships with people she would never otherwise meet. I don’t want to say too much about them since part of a great zombie apocalypse is never knowing who survives and where they go but I will say that it’s a well written quest that forces Allison to make decisions and decide what she can and cannot live with in this scary new world.

Madeleine Roux’s website says that this story started off as an experimental fiction blog and I think that the experiment was incredibly successful. Allison Hewitt Is Trapped can’t be put down once you start so you better start it early in the day. I did not do this and I paid for it the next day at school. But it was completely worth it!! The sequel, Sadie Walker Is Stranded, is slated for release on the 31st. I’m going to make sure that I read it on the weekend, in case it’s as addictive as its predecessor.

This book seems to have inspired a lot of folks. Check out this fan-made trailer! It has a lot of Kristen Bell, which makes it awesome in my books. The author really likes it – she put an announcement about it on her blog.

Born and raised in the Toronto area, Jenn moved to St. John's, Newfoundland, eight years ago for school. She's still in school (thankfully on another degree!), now trapped in her dissertation. When she's not dissertating, which happens more often than it should, Jenn spends her time reading, watching movies, playing volleyball, travelling, and enjoying the local music scene. Her latest addictions: yoga and Almond Crunch cereal.

5 People left their mark' :

I read this book recently and I wasn't sure what to expect either. I was pleasantly surprised by the different approach to the zombie story. I'll be looking for the next book in the series too. Great review!